In this second entry to our spotlight on Latin America series we will explore the southern cone. Comprised of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, this is a highly diverse group which overall exhibits the highest HDI (Human Development Index) of Latin America, and its relatively high standard of living make it the most prosperous macro-region. That is not to say that mobile money for the unbanked does not have a place in these countries. In Argentina for example, the economic collapse in 2001 left more than half of the population living in poverty and completely eroded the trust in the banking sector.
Spotlight on the Active User Rate: What Deployments are Seeing and How They’re Responding
By: Paul Leishman: March 8th, 2010The mobile industry is a bit obsessed with metrics. We’ve got one for every phase of the customer lifecycle, from cost of acquisition (COA) to average revenue per user (ARPU) to cost of retention (COR) to name just a few. It seems, though, that from our endless selection of acronyms, we still spend almost all of our time talking about two in particular when it comes to mobile money: ARPU and churn. Not to say that’s a bad thing - it’s important that emerging industries have a clear view of the opportunity that rationalizes their investment and effort. But given that so much is being said about these two metrics, today I want to talk about the other important metric that operators need to think about: the active user rate…
MMU Deployment Tracker Update
By: Camilo Tellez: March 3rd, 2010It’s only been two months since the GSMA Mobile Money Deployment Tracker was launched and we are already seeing a noticeable increase in the number of live and planned deployments worldwide. This interactive tool was designed to track the number of mobile money deployments targeting the unbanked segment, as well as present in depth data, remittance corridors, and socio-economic information on the countries in which these deployments are being launched.
So what’s been happening in the last couple months?
Q&A: 2010 Mobile Money Summit (May 24-27) in Rio de Janeiro
By: Paul Leishman: March 2nd, 2010With the Mobile Money Summit fast approaching, I’ve spent a few minutes addressing some of the questions that were posed to the GSMA team most frequently in Barcelona. If you have other questions beyond the ones below, feel free to post a comment.
Mobile Money Spotlight on Latin America
By: Camilo Tellez: March 1st, 2010In May 2010, the Mobile Money Summit will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While the event has a global remit, it will provide a unique opportunity to highlight the coming of age of Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) in Latin America. In anticipation of the event, I will be writing a series of posts focusing on the region, showcasing along the way the current opportunities and challenges in the deployment and implementation of mobile money. This will be a 3-part series, with each post to follow focusing on developments in the following Latin American regions:
- Southern Cone and Brazil
- The Andean region
- Mexico and Central America.
GSMA Hosts Central African Mobile Money Roundtable - Focus on Regional Regulation
By: Paul Leishman: February 25th, 2010On Tuesday in Yaounde, we hosted the GSMA Central African Mobile Money Roundtable. This was the first regional event of its kind hosted by the GSMA, and it was designed to share information and experiences regulating mobile money with BEAC, the financial services regulator for the Economic Community of Central African States, which includes Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon.
The roundtable was attended by MTN, Orange, Zain, Camtel, Citibank, Afriland First Bank, BEAC, BCEAO, Central Bank of Kenya (thanks to the support of the Alliance of Financial Inclusion), Bank of Ghana, CGAP and GSMA.
So why did we choose to host our first regional regulatory roundtable in Cameroon?
The Consumer Protections Built Into Branchless Banking
By: Guest Blogger: February 24th, 2010As regulators confront the challenges of regulating branchless banking, protecting the consumer is often their primary concern. And for good reason. Branchless banking is a new service targeting the least sophisticated customers and introducing new actors such as mobile network operators and retail agents into a sector formerly reserved for well capitalized and regulated commercial banks. As a result, there can be an understandable tendency to err on the side of caution.
But compliance with regulations comes at a cost - and that cost is ultimately passed on to the consumer…
2010 Mobile World Congress: Day 2 of Mobile Money in Review
By: Paul Leishman: February 16th, 2010Today was day number two of Mobile World Congress, and for me (and most readers of our blog), the highlight had to be the MMU Working Group. Mobile operators, vendors and other industry stakeholders convened to exchange learnings in our full-day interactive session.
The focus of the day was agent distribution, and conversations ranged from individual [...]
2010 Mobile World Congress: Day 1 of Mobile Money in Review
By: Paul Leishman: February 15th, 2010The first day of the 2010 Mobile World Congress has officially come to a close. Today was an eventful day for anyone interested in mobile money: this year, we introduced ‘Mobile Money Monday’, an action packed day filled with presentations and panels from the likes of SMART, Telenor, Turkcell, Orange, Telefonica, Vodafone, Roshan, SingTel, Axiata, [...]
Mobile Money at the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2010
By: Seema Desai: February 12th, 2010Barcelona will take on a distinctly mobile flavour next week, as 50,000 people descend on the Catalan capital for GSMA Mobile World Congress. Monday will be devoted to mobile money, and our 4th MMU Working Group will take place on Tuesday…
News Tracker
- 1. Nokia Money Launches Commercial Pilot in India
- 2. Zain Wins GSMA Mobile Money for the Unbanked Award
- 3. Belgacom ICS and Globe Sign Agreement for International Remittances
- 4. Easypaisa ‘mobile account’ launched in Pakistan
- 5. Western Union Certifies mChek and Fundamo for Mobile Vendor Programme
- 5. Zain expands ‘Zap’ Mobile Commerce service to Malawi, Niger and Sierra Leone
- 6. 2010 Mobile Money Summit Announced for 24-27 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- 7. WING Set to Cover all of Cambodia
- 8. Maroc Telecom Launches Mobile Money Offering
- 9. IFC Paper Released on Accelerating Development of Mobile Money Ecosystems
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